The Faith Initiative at the Center for American Progress launched its Faith and Reproductive Justice Leadership Institute on Tuesday. The Institute “will provide new and seasoned leaders with the resources they need to be effective faith advocates for women’s reproductive health”.

This will include helping left-leaning clergy speak out effectively for abortion rights. The Institute is hosting an initial training session over two days this week and has scheduled another for September. This year the Institute expects to train 20 faith leaders from across the country, including clergy, activists and staff from mainline denominations.

“Religion does support a woman’s personal decision-making about whether she is ready to become a parent,” said Sally Steenland, director of the Faith Initiative at the Center for American Progress. “Too often conventional wisdom pits religion against reproductive rights,” Steenland said. “But for most women there is no conflict between their faith and their commitment to reproductive freedom.”

“Attacks on women’s health have been especially strong in the past several months – sometimes disguised as a religious liberty issue – which makes the Leadership Institute more important than ever,” Steenland said.

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Sure would be nice if this was the norm, as it should be, instead of the exception. Wake up, people of the GOP, and realize staging a war against women is in no one's best interest! All women deserve respect, and deserve the freedom to choose what's truly right for their bodies, and their lives!

Choice of what to do with ones own body should not be a religious issue but a personal issue. Given that most religious institutions don't understand this, I sure hope this one is real. And I'm an Atheist!

There are a lot of pro-choice denominations and religions organizations. I took the following list from ReligiousTolerance.org:

A number of liberal and mainline Christian and Jewish faith groups and organizations have publicly stated that abortions are sometimes an acceptable option, and should remain legal. According to lists prepared by The Secular Web and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, they include, in alphabetic order:

American Baptist Churches-USA
American Ethical Union
bullet American Friends (Quaker) Service Committee
American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Congress
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Council of Jewish Federations
Episcopal Church (USA)
Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot
Moravian Church in America-Northern Province
Na'Amat USA
bullet National Council of Jewish Women
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
Unitarian Universalist Association
United Church of Christ
United Methodist Church
United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism